Set during the onset of an apocalypse in the form of a plague, The Night Parade is part road trip, part survivalist thriller, part emotional relationship drama and, fortunately for me, all parts were good.

The plague is dubbed Wanderer’s Folly because it makes you lose your marbles before killing you. You might wander about in your undies and do such strange things like setting your house aflame or walking off a cliff before dropping dead. Yikes, I don’t know about you but those images haunted me. It was horrifying and scary and seeing as I love these types of stories, I was in it from the very beginning.

David has blood on his sleeve and is trying to outrun the plague and keep his daughter Ellie safe from an evil doctor. That’s all about all we know when the story begins. As things slowly unravel, we learn everything but it takes its sweet time getting there and I will not spoil the trip for you. The getting there is all the fun (well, fun isn’t exactly the appropriate word for this emotional and grief laden story). The book is filled is with scary people, frighteningly large bugs and lots of them, fatherly love and strange discoveries.

There is such pain and sorrow in both David and Ellie’s past and nothing but fear in their future but they manage to keep going. I enjoyed reading about them both. It’s a gripping and well-paced read that, unlike many of these types of stories, never forgets about its characters. The world may have gone to shit but humanity still survives. I recommend it highly and hope there is another book set in this world because there are a few plot points I’d like to see expanded upon. 4 ½ Stars